Temporal variation in abundance and diversity of butterflies in Bornean rain forests: opposite impacts of logging recorded in different seasons

We used traps baited with fruit to examine how the temporal variation of butterflies within primary forest in Sabah, Borneo differed between species. In addition, we compared patterns of temporal variation in primary and selectively logged forest, and we tested the hypothesis that selective logging has different recorded impacts on species diversity of adults during the wet monsoon period and the drier remaining half of the year. Species of Satyrinae and Morphinae had significantly less-restricted flight periods than did species of Nymphalinae and Charaxinae, which were sampled mainly during the drier season. especially in primary forest. Species diversity of adults was significantly higher during the drier season in primary forest, but did not differ between seasons in logged forest. As a consequence, logging had opposite recorded impacts on diversity during wetter and drier seasons: primary forest had significantly higher diversity than logged forest during the drier season but significantly lower diversity than logged forest during the wetter monsoon season. The results of this study have important implications for the assessment of biodiversity in tropical rain forests, particularly in relation to habitat disturbance: short-term assessments that do not take account of seasonal variation in abundance are likely to produce misleading results, even in regions where the seasonal variation in rainfall is not that great

Land use detection in Nusajaya using higher-order modified geodesic active contour model

Urban development is a global phenomenon. In Johor, especially Nusajaya is one of the most rapidly developing cities. This is due to the increase of land demand and population growth. Moreover, land-use changes are considered to be one of the major components of current environmental monitoring strategies. In this context, image segmentation and mathematical model offers essential tools that can be used to analyze land use detection. The image segmentation process is known as the most important and difficult task in image analysis. Nonlinear fourth-order models had shown to have a good achievement in recovering smooth regions. Therefore, these motivate us to propose a fourth-order modified geodesic active contour (GAC) model. In the proposed model, a modified signed pressure force (SPF) function has been defined to segment the inhomogeneous satellite images. The simulations of the fourth-order modified GAC model through some numerical methods based on the higher-order finite difference method (FDM) have been illustrated. Matlab R2015a software in Windows 7 Ultimate on Intel (R) Core (TM) i5-3230M @ 2.60GHz CPU with 8 GB RAM has been considered as a computational platform for the simulation. Qualitative and quantitative differences between modified SPF functions and other SPF functions have been shown as a comparison. Hence land use detection is very useful for local governments and urban planners to enhance the future sustainable development plans of Nusajaya

Audio deformation based data augmentation for convolution neural network in vibration analysis

Audio deformations in audio processing have proved ability in preserve semantic meaning for audio signal. Convolution Neural Network (CNN) is among deep learning model that requires huge dataset during training for excellence performance Thus, data augmentation (DA) method is used to overcome the problem of limited dataset number for vibration analysis. Several signal processing phases including segmentation and image converting need to be performed before the vibration signal can be used as input for CNN. In this research, audio-deformation based DA is proposed in generating the additional vibration signal dataset. The proses is start by encoding the raw vibration signal to audio signal format to enable the audio deformation process performing, then decoding back into new vibration signal. Speed and amplify transformation are selected for audio deformation process. The new vibration data set of bearing fault detection problem are used for training CNN to validate the proposed approach. The results obtained from 13 experiments setting have shown that the proposed DA able to increase the accuracy of training for CNN until 13% compared with the previous DA method

3D medical image visualization and VE model to determine the pathology zone of tumor evidence-based using some numerical methods and simulation

This paper presents some integrated mathematical modeling and simulation for visualizing a 3D medical image and estimating the volume of tumor growth. Thus, these two indicators will determine the pathology zone and to provide revised evidence-based on tumor histology, location, growth and the treatment effect. There are three phases of modeling and simulation for volume visualization of the 3D tumor. The first phase is converting from 2D signal images to 2D digital images based on edge detection of the tumor. Geodesic Active Contour (GAC) model based on additive operator splitting (AOS) will be used to detect the contour line of a brain tumor on 2D images. The second phase is pre-constructing of 3D digital image from the 2D images by applying two numerical models such as an image manifold model (IM) and volume estimation model (VE). The third phase is implementing the numerical simulation and visualizing the 3D medical image on a hardware and software computational platform. The numerical comparison of VE and IM will be investigate using some performance measurements and interpretation in terms of VE, RMSE, run time and computational complexity cost. In this case study, the medical image is based on a set of 2D MRI brain tumor images from Kubang Krian Hospital Malaysia (HKK). The numerical results will determine the pathology zone and to provide revised evidence-based on tumor informatics. As a conclusion, this paper proof an alternative numerical model is superior to construct and visual the 3D medical images. Thus, volumetric image estimation from the 2D image and extended to a 3D volume image is essential for accurate evaluation of the high resolution 3D medical images

An improved image compression technique using large adaptive DCT psychovisual thresholds

High quality multimedia requires high bandwidth and data transfer rate to transmit multimedia data in communication networks. Image compression is one of solutions to reduce the storage of multimedia data which in turn allows an efficient transmission through networks. An adaptive image compression technique through customized quantization tables based on user preference has been widely used in many applications. Scaling quantization table can significantly influence the reconstruction error and compression rate. This paper proposes an adaptive psychovisual threshold for customizing large quantization tables to improve image compression. An adaptive psychovisual threshold is computed based on a smooth curve of the absolute reconstruction error by incrementing the DCT frequency order. Experimental results show that the performance of adaptive large DCT psychovisual threshold achieves high image quality and minimum average bit length of Huffman code. The proposed method also demonstrates that boundary effects do not appear when the compressed image is zoomed in to 400

Utilizing hydraulic modelling and Geographical Information System (GIS) in developing a water distribution network for reclaimed water

Rapid development has increased water demand, combined with population growth, water scarcity, climate change, and rapid economic growth, are driving factors for water reclaim. This paper reviews previous research on developing a water distribution system for delivering reclaimed water in order to mitigate the industry's growing water demand. As a result, reclaimable wastewater should be identified in order to establish links between urban and industrial infrastructure planning and water reclamation. Correspondingly, it is tasked with the responsibility of developing low-cost water treatment for industrial water reclamation. Simultaneously, a reliable water distribution network is required to deliver reclaimed water. This can be accomplished through the use of hydraulic modelling and GIS to analyse, manage, and develop the water distribution network in response to a growing supply demand. Hydraulic modelling is used to calculate and analyse the demand for the water supply over a specified time period based on daily water use. Additionally, it computing the appropriate parameter for the pipeline in order to deliver an adequate amount of pressure to the consumer efficiently. The developed hydraulic model was then integrated into GIS to facilitate the network layout and visualization of the water distribution system. Apart from that, in order to fully implement the concept of reclaimed water and its delivery via a water distribution system, several factors must be considered, including public acceptance, economic viability, environmental stewardship, technical operation, and health risk

Impacts of rain forest fragmentation on butterflies in northern Borneo: species richness, turnover and the value of small fragments

• 1. Widespread and rapid losses of tropical rain forests have made understanding the responses of species to rain forest fragmentation an area of major concern. In this study we examined the impacts of habitat fragmentation on the species richness and faunal composition of butterflies in tropical rain forests in Sabah, Borneo. We analysed patterns of both α‐ and β‐diversity to assess the relative importance of differences in patch size, isolation and vegetation structure on the diversity and similarity of species assemblages. We used additive partitioning to assess the relative contributions of intact forest and forest remnants to overall species richness at a landscape scale and we examined which traits of species best predicted their responses to fragmentation. • 2. Species richness and diversity in rain forest remnants was significantly positively related to remnant size and significantly negatively related to isolation, in keeping with theories of island biogeography. Species assemblages at different sites were significantly nested, with those species most adversely affected by forest fragmentation having a narrow range of larval host‐plants and, to a lesser extent, being large‐bodied. No species endemic to Borneo was recorded in forest remnants smaller than 4000 ha, but even the smallest remnant (120 ha) supported species with geographical distributions confined within Sundaland (West Malaysia and the islands of the Sunda Shelf). • 3. Although assemblages were significantly nested, they departed substantially from perfect nestedness, with some species recorded only or predominantly in small, relatively depauperate remnants. As a result there was substantial β‐diversity among sites, which was related to variation in both fragment size and vegetation structure. At the landscape scale, diversity within sites was less than that between sites, and the majority of the diversity between sites was related to variation in fragment size. • 4. Synthesis and applications. Substantial diversity was added to the assemblage of butterflies in Bornean rain forests by virtue of species differences among fragments, which were related mainly to differences in patch size and vegetation structure. The data reported indicate that, despite having lower species richness, relatively small and isolated remnants of rain forest make a substantial contribution to regional diversity. Small isolated forest remnants are generally accorded low conservation status and given little protection, with the result that they often disappear over time because of continued anthropogenic disturbance. The results of this study indicate that the conservation value of small remnants of forest, in particular their contribution to environmental heterogeneity, should not be overlooked

Dysphagia training for speech-language pathologists: implications for clinical practice

There are competency standards available in countries with established speech-language pathology services to guide basic dysphagia training with ongoing workplace mentoring for advanced skills development. Such training processes, however, are not as well established in countries where speech-language pathology training and practice is relatively new, such as Malaysia. The current study examines the extent of dysphagia training and workplace support available to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Malaysia and Queensland, Australia, and explores clinicians’ perceptions of the training and support provided, and of their knowledge, skills, and confidence. Using a matched cohort cross-sectional design, a purpose-built survey was administered to 30 SLPs working in Malaysian government hospitals and 30 SLPs working in Queensland Health settings in Australia. Malaysian clinicians were found to have received significantly less university training, less mentoring in the workplace, and were lacking key infrastructure needed to support professional development in dysphagia management. Over 90% of Queensland clinicians were confident and felt they had adequate skills in dysphagia management; in contrast, significantly lower levels of knowledge, skills, and confidence were observed in the Malaysian cohort. The findings identify a need for improved university training and increased opportunities for workplace mentoring, training, and support for Malaysian SLPs

A social networking-based advertising to enhance customer reach target

A traditional advertising is a method to deliver commercial messages to mass audiences through the newspaper, outdoor billboards, radio, and television. This method is quite expensive for the small and medium company. The new concept of advertising such as social media, website, and application provide an inexpensive way to promote businesses. The proposed idea is to create a new platform for advertising and promotional tools which is called Tagme. This system is developed based on web environment on Windows and Android. Tagme allows marketers to promote their event, business or store and give promotions including vouchers to customers. Tagme also will notify customers instantly with any events or promotions such as free voucher giveaway that will be managed by the marketers themselves. Tagme provides a form of solution for marketers to promote their business efficiently as it provides web analytics and users preferences functions. This will allow marketers to promote their business to specific and focused customers

E-commerce adoption by SMEs in developing countries: evidence from Indonesia

This study aims to provide an overview of e-commerce adoption by SMEs in developing countries and, in particular, the extent of the adoption of e-commerce by Indonesian SMEs. It identifies the e-commerce benefits realized by these SMEs and investigates the relationship between the levels of e-commerce adoption and the benefits thus realized. The study was motivated by the limited studies related to e-commerce adoption by SMEs, especially in developing countries. In addition, it seems that most e-commerce studies are focused more on upstream issues: to see the factors that facilitate, or barriers faced regarding e-commerce adoption, rather than downstream issues: to see post-adoption benefits. This certainly limits our understanding about e-commerce adoption by SMEs in developing countries, as well as the post-adoption benefits of e-commerce. Indonesia was chosen as the place in which to conduct the study. A survey of 292 SMEs shows that the majority of them are still at an early stage in their adoption of e-commerce. Their use of e-commerce is dominated by marketing and purchasing and procurement activities. “Extending market reach”, “increased sales”, “improved external communication”, “improved company image”, “improved speed of processing”, and “increased employee productivity” are reported as the top six e-commerce benefits perceived by these SMEs. This study also shows that SMEs at the higher level of e-commerce adoption experience greater e-commerce benefits than those at other levels of adoption